I expected to see the price of gasoline at the pumps come down a few pennies on July 1, when the sales tax rate dropped.

The gasoline stations I checked on had the same prices as the day before. What’s with that? Don’t they have to comply with the law?

Diane Ariotti

Glendora

Monrovia pillars

With shock, sorrow and great remembrances I perused the obit of former City Manager Rich Beal the other morning.

Rich was city manager of Monrovia when Eric Faith, Bob Bartlett and I were elected to the City Council. He retired the year I was elected mayor.

What a great leader and instructor he was for the three off us beginning a new era for downtown Monrovia and redevelopment throughout the city.

Roy Kropke who was the city clerk, and the Beals, Kropkes, Weathermans (Wanda was manager of Crocker Bank and president of the Chamber of Commerce at the time) and my husband, Peter (also former councilman) and I became lasting friends and travelers, covering much of the United States with the Elderhostel and in League of California Cities conferences twice a year.

Today I am the orphan of the group. Hard to believe everyone else is gone but what glorious times we had.

Pat Ostrye

Monrovia

Job not done

Re Ruben Navarrette’s column (June3) in which he complains about ICE and the Secure Communities program that leads to deportation: He calls the offenders “non-criminals.” Do we really want to protect drunken drivers, shoplifters and domestic partner abusers who are here illegally? Our prison population is soaring, and it’s helping to bankrupt the state. Is this the federal government’s answer to our problem?

I doubt it. The administration makes a half-hearted effort to control our borders, especially our southern border with Mexico, one of our major trading partners. Yes, the agreement is a tad one-sided, I admit. But don’t forget the value of Mexican labor to employers today, employers who have jobs to fill that Americans won’t do. If only they paid a living wage.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren would have us kill the Secure Communities deportation program. Maybe she’s right. It’s expensive; it’s time consuming and it doesn’t seem to be getting the job done, if the job is to reform our immigration laws.

We’d be better to try the piece-meal approach and hope that, once the economy improves, no one will remember why immigration was ever an issue. While I don’t agree, this seems to be the administration’s game plan.